Manufacturers and suppliers of products often package their products in shipping containers before sending products to their customers. Each shipping container may accommodate either a single product or multiple products, depending on the application. Moreover, the container allows for ease in handling, shipping, and storing the products, along with providing protection from damage, theft, and contamination.
Although many types of shipping containers and container materials are readily available on the market, one of the most common shipping containers is a corrugated cardboard container or box. Boxes are typically both economical and sufficiently strong for most shipping uses and come in many shapes and sizes. However, included in the known type of boxes to which the present invention is applied are the regular slotted carton and the regular slotted carton with shortened flaps.
The first box type pertinent to the present invention is the regular slotted carton. As shown in FIG. 1, the regular slotted carton is generally rectangular and comprises four contiguous vertical side surfaces and two pair of flaps, commonly known as the major and minor pairs of flaps, on both the top and bottom of the box. Each of the flaps is connected to one of the vertical side surfaces, such that when the pairs of major and minor flaps are folded toward each other and toward the center of the box, the edges of at least the major flaps meet near the center of the top or bottom of the box, effectively creating the top and bottom horizontal surfaces of the box and closing the box.
The flaps on the regular slotted carton are typically sealed in place by glue or by pressure sensitive adhesive tape. The tape is often applied in either a "C-clip" or an "L-clip" configuration, both of which are commonly known in the art and are described below.
The C-clip is so named because a cross-section of the tape is in the shape of the letter "C". More specifically, a C-clip of tape.is a continuous length of adhesive tape that is applied to a portion of one vertical side of a box, across the center of one of the horizontal surfaces of the box to seal the abutting major flaps together, and finally to a portion of the opposite vertical side of the box. Moreover, the tape for a C-clip is typically wide enough to be applied along the abutting flaps such that both flaps of the outermost, or major, pairs of flaps on the top and bottom of the box are sealed by a single piece of tape. When the regular slotted carton is closed and sealed with a C-clip of adhesive tape, there are no substantial gaps to allow contaminants to reach the product or products enclosed in the box.
The L-clip is so named because a cross-section of the tape is in the shape of the capital letter "L". More specifically, an L-clip of adhesive tape comprises a length of adhesive tape that is applied to a portion of one vertical side of the box and to an adjacent portion of one of the horizontal surfaces of the box, effectively securing one or both of the abutting flaps of the horizontal surface to the vertical side of the box. The number of L-clips applied to a single box can vary based on the manufacturer's or supplier's requirements for the integrity of the box in its sealed condition.
One problem associated with a regular slotted carton sealed with C-clips or L-clips is that the person opening the box typically needs a sharp instrument to penetrate the tape and access the objects inside the box. A new alternative method of sealing these boxes that would allow the boxes to be opened quickly and easily would save the person opening the boxes considerable time and effort.
However, in many circumstances, the manufacturer or supplier uses a shipping box mainly to keep multiple products contained in a single shipping container; therefore, the primary purpose of the box is not to prevent damage, theft, or contamination of the products in the box. In these cases, the regular slotted carton may provide more protection than is necessary for the products. Moreover, because the price of a box is directly related to the quantity of raw materials (e.g., corrugated cardboard) used in manufacturing the box, the cost of using regular slotted cartons may be unnecessarily high for those box users who do not need as complete a protection for their products.
To address these concerns, container manufacturers produce a second type of box also considered pertinent to the present application; a regular slotted carton with shortened or "shied" pairs of major and minor flaps that do not meet each other when the box is closed. Instead, when the box is in its closed condition, there is a gap between both the major and minor pairs of flaps. Boxes of this type use substantially less raw materials, which correspondingly reduces both the costs to produce the boxes and ultimately reduces the amount of waste generated when disposing of the boxes. The reduced box production costs may then be passed on to the manufacturer or supplier who is purchasing the boxes; ultimately, these cost savings may then be passed on to the consumer of the products that are shipped in these boxes.
Boxes with shied flaps are commonly sealed with hot glue that is applied at each of the intersections of the major and minor flaps as the box is being closed. Although hot glue can be adequate to seal the box, hot glue dispensing equipment requires greater care in use and the glue nozzles are often subject to high maintenance costs.
An alternate method of sealing boxes with shied flaps is to apply two C-clips of box sealing tape to the major pair of flaps, with one C-clip applied on each flap of the pair. For example, it is known to apply two C-clips from two separate tape sources (i.e., rolls), each mounted on a separate taping head provided on a box sealing machine. One disadvantage of box sealing machines with plural taping heads is that the costs for the tape application equipment on these machines is higher than for machines with one supply source and taping head. Moreover, in the normal operation of a packaging machine with two supply sources, when one roll of tape is depleted or broken and needs replacement with a new roll, the operator will likely dispose of both the depleted roll and the other roll at the same time so that he or she will not have to shut down the machine again when the other roll is depleted. This procedure can often waste substantial quantities of tape.
The general application of single lengths of box sealing tape to boxes in either a C-clip, L-clip, or other configuration by various apparatuses such as hand-held devices and automatic and semi-automatic box sealing machines is well known. However, there is a continuing need in the packaging industry for improved methods of sealing boxes.